Olivia decided that she would celebrate her daddy this year by not smiling at all for the camera.

I’m not going to look at you, but you can admire my red tints from the side.

I (read: Chris) got Chris an Amazon Fire Stick for his Father’s Day gift, but since he opened it as soon as it was delivered last week, Olivia and I also got him an Iced Tea recipe book and a new wallet.

Clearly the wrapping paper is the best part.

Now how can I chew obnoxiously on this without them noticing?

My parents and sisters came over for lunch and we grilled some hot dogs. Olivia was in a great mood, showing off all her tricks (her latest thing in the cuteness factory is “smelling” something in which she wrinkles up her nose, puckers her lips up, and deeply sniffs. It leads to a lot of laughter and “OMG she’s so funny!” so that’s probably why she does it whenever you ask her).

Unfortunately when it came time for a family photo, she was having none of it.

None. Of it. So this was the Father’s Day photo this year.

It didn’t get much better when my dad tried to get a picture with his grandkids in his grandpa T-shirt.

How dare you try to trick me into taking a picture?

Fine, I’ll give you a semi decent photo, with some thigh roll.

I don’t know what her deal was, besides for the fact that she’s a year and a half, and therefore an asshole, but anytime she was held up for a photo, she spit and squealed and demanded to get down, so we have very, very few acceptable photos.

In fact, it went pretty much like this:

Please, please Olivia, please just look at the camera once.

No.

Even her not-even 8 month old cousin was considering throwing in the towel. Of course we finally got a good one after the 47th take.

And of course any photo with her mom was out.

Even holding a hippo, she is still are having None Of It.

For her cousin though, she was all smiles, deeply inspecting, and smooshing herself into his face.

Unrelated note: We may need to work on personal space.

Later in the afternoon, Chris and I took (a continually unimpressed) Olivia out to a park to take a walk.

Despite this waterfall in front of me, I’m still not going to smile.

And I’m completely unimpressed with this river.

Overall, it was a great day. We didn’t get our annual Father’s Day photo out in the back yard like last year, due to a fussy baby, but here it is a bit later.

If I thought last Father’s Day was amazing, this year was better. Watching her interact with Chris, bringing him his gift, capturing this photo of her lifted onto his shoulders, it’s indescribable. These are the memories we’ve waited for. These are the memories infertility almost stole from us.

You are a perfect writer – I’m in stitches at the truth that being a 1.5 year old = being an asshole; and simultaneously tearing up at the mention of what infertility does, how it almost took this from you. I’m starting IVF next week and keep your story close to heart when I think of the journey that awaits us. So happy to watch this happy story of your life unfold. 🙂